


The Happiness of Kokoro Tsurumaki

by ruff_ethereal



Category: BanG Dream! (Anime), BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Gen, Supernatural Elements, Time Loop, Time Shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-14
Updated: 2019-05-14
Packaged: 2020-03-05 08:27:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18824932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ruff_ethereal/pseuds/ruff_ethereal
Summary: However reluctantly, Misaki had to admit—against all reason and the rules of time and physics—that she was stuck in a time loop, and she was the only one that knew it.





	The Happiness of Kokoro Tsurumaki

However reluctantly, Misaki had to admit—against all reason and the rules of time and physics—that she was stuck in a time loop, and she was the only one that knew it.

She wondered exactly why she had become like the protagonist of that one American film, forced to constantly relive the same day over, and over, and _over_ again, except “today” wasn’t a special holiday, or the dawn of some significant, catastrophic event; no, it seemed to be just a regular old Tuesday, like time had just tripped, broke itself, and never recovered.

 _Nothing_ changed from loop to loop, except the things that Misaki herself could directly influence. She had tried everything she could think of, from doing all her schoolwork last-minute to great stress and consternation; to being unfailingly nice and polite to everyone; to trying to investigate and suss out any sorts of significant events that she missed and could have stopped, like the death of someone important.

But alas, nothing worked, and eventually lost all hope, going through the motions like everyone else trapped in this infinitely repeating hell.

Then, a call came through the school’s intercom: _“Okusawa Misaki, please report to the Student Discipline Office immediately. Again, Okusawa Misaki, please report to the Student Discipline Office_ immediately.”

Misaki sat up straight eyes wide and mind racing. “What happened?” she thought as she left the classroom and walked down the halls. “Did I do something earlier this morning that could get me in trouble?”

She _had_ engaged in some mischief and willful misbehaviour, just to shake things up. She had quickly tired of it, but it was possible that perhaps she had unintentionally broke a rule earlier this morning. Before she could try to figure out what it might have been, however, she found herself at the SDO.

Misaki stopped in front of the door, her heart racing as her she wondered what would happen when she stepped inside. Was this a possible end to this never-ending Tuesday? Would it just be a fluke, and her hopes would be crushed yet again? Would she have to start monitoring the SDO and its members, for the possibility that someone was conscious of the time loops, too?

Before she could come to a conclusion, the door suddenly slid open, a very upset Sayo Hikawa behind it.

Misaki blinked, snapping out of her daze. She reflexively prepared to apologize, but Sayo spoke first: “Are you going to stand there until this loop ends, or are you going to come inside and help me figure out how to restore the flow of time to normal?”

Misaki blinked again, staring at Sayo with her mouth-agape, before she slapped herself, and quickly stepped into the SDO.

Sayo huffed, before she shut the door behind them, and marched back to her desk. “Sit down, please, Okusawa-san,” she said, gesturing to the seat directly across it. “I’m sure you have _many_ questions.”

Misaki nodded and dropped into the chair, looked at Sayo, and asked, “So what’s going on, exactly?”

“First of all, I will tell you what it is _not.”_ Sayo started. “You have _not_ gone crazy. You are _not_ trapped in some coma-induced dream. And you are most _definitely not_ trapped in some computer simulation run by malevolent robots.

“This is, in fact, reality as you’ve known it since birth.”

Misaki nodded. “So what _did_ happen?”

“Something has gone wrong with the flow of time, and after _much_ investigation, I’ve finally, conclusively identified who is responsible for all of it. And in case it wasn’t already obvious to you, I need your help to fix time, and for security reasons, I can’t disclose that information unless you can promise me your full cooperation, and that you’ll do _exactly_ what I say, without question.”

Sayo peered at Misaki, and asked, “Do I have your cooperation…?”

Misaki nodded furiously. _“Absolutely!_ Anything you say! I just want everything to go back to normal…!”

Sayo smiled, however little. “Good. Now, onto the briefing,” she said, her face turning back to full seriousness. “As I said, there is one individual at the center of all this: Tsurumaki Kokoro.”

Misaki blinked. “Wait… Tsurumaki Kokoro? Blonde? Yellow eyes? Hyper, weird as hell, and apparently extremely rich?”

“Yes.” Sayo replied, nodding.

“… What, did her family somehow invent a time machine and it malfunctioned?”

“I don’t know.” Sayo replied calmly.

“Then how do you know she’s the one responsible?” Misaki asked, annoyed.

“ _Because,_ I have spent _217,448_ loops observing and investigating every last possible cause and explanation, forced to rely only on _just_ my memory as all my notes keep disappearing at the end of each loop, and after going through all that stress and hardship, I would _really_ appreciate your faith, Okusawa--san.” Sayo explained, her voice gradually rising till she was almost shouting, a vein visibly popping on her head. She took a deep, calming breath, and said, “I am sorry for that outburst, Okusawa-san.”

Misaki frowned, scooted a little further back into her chair, and said, “… Okay, I’ll believe you… so what exactly do we do…?”

“I need you to entertain her.” Sayo said.

Misaki blinked. “I’m sorry: _what?”_

“Entertain Tsurumaki-san.” Sayo said. “I have come to the conclusion that Tsurumaki-san has been wittingly or unwittingly causing this temporal distortion because she is _extremely_ bored. I have been trying to do this myself, but all my efforts have been in vain, and I realized that there must be some other individual who can give her whatever she wants.”

“Namely, me?” Misaki asked, pointing to herself.

“Yes, especially because there doesn’t seem to be any other individuals conscious of these loops aside from the two of us.” Sayo said.

Misaki nodded, before an unsure look came over her face. “… So how do I do this, exactly…?”

“Go find Tsurumaki-san, for one.” Sayo said. “The rest will be entirely up to you, though please _refrain_ from doing anything extreme, such as crimes, murdering her or anyone else, or any sort of mortifying actions and schemes that you will possibly live to regret if it actually does end up fixing the flow of time.

“I must also tell you, Oksawa-san, that Tsurumaki-san seems completely oblivious to the temporal distortion she’s created; her memories do not appear to persist across loops like everyone else in the world, so she doesn’t realize that today has been repeating over and over again.”

“Seriously…?” Misaki asked. “How is that possible? She’s the cause of all this, right?”

Sayo sighed. “Again, I don’t know, no matter how badly I want to… but for what it’s worth, I _do_ know is that it’s perfectly possible to cause serious harm to others while being ignorant of the fact, so it may also apply to this—however little things like ‘sense’ and ‘logic’ seem to apply nowadays.”

“Fair point.” Misaki said. “I’m going to go try and figure that out now, Hikawa-san, please excuse me.”

“Don’t let me stop you.” Sayo said, waving her off. “And should you need my help again, don’t hesitate to ask, either.”

“I won’t.” Misaki said as she stood back up.

She skipped the rest of the school day, heading straight home and back to her room, ignoring or giving non-answers to the questions and concerns from her family. “A way out of this time loop,” Misaki thought to herself as she cradled her head in her hands, her elbows propped on her study desk. “And all I need to do is figure out how to entertain Tsurumaki-san.”

She pulled out a notebook, and wrote down what she had just learned—it wouldn’t persist to the next day, but it was a quick and easy to declutter her brain so she could focus on her plan, starting with the most important step of all:

Getting information on Kokoro Tsurumaki.

Misaki barely knew anything about her, outside from a few noteworthy incidents and rumours that were so widespread it was impossible _not_ to hear about them, so she borrowed the family PC for “urgent research.” She found plenty to read about her family, the _absurdly_ rich Tsurumakis, plenty of articles and press releases detailing just how much of Japan they effectively owned, the portions of other countries also in their control, and all the public knew they did with all that money, power, and influence.

However, there were barely any details about Kokoro exactly; not even her going to Hanasakigawa was mentioned anywhere.

“I guess that makes sense,” Misaki thought to herself. “If you’re this ridiculously rich, you wouldn’t want the wrong kind of people to have access to all that information on your kid. She’s probably a target as is.”

Misaki paused for a moment, imagining what kind of life she must have lived with that sort of danger hanging over her head simply for existing. Then, she resumed her research, trying stranger and more creative search queries and questionable websites, until she could no longer convince her family that she really _was_ doing all this for research, and had to log off.

She spent the rest of the evening at her desk, trying to figure out how best to approach Kokoro Tsurumaki with the minimal information she had, and what was possibly the weirdest and most unbelievable reason for wanting to talk to her in the first place. She briefly considered just finding her, saying, “Hi, I’m Okusawa Misaki, and I’m here to entertain you so I can break the infinite time loop you’ve trapped me in!” before she quickly realized that was probably a great way to scare her off, get strange looks and questions from everyone for the rest of the day, and possibly end the loop detained in a police station or being screened by a mental health facility.

10:37 PM came, Misaki felt her head hitting the desk, exhausted; there was still technically time before the loop ended—at 11:59:37 exactly, by her alarm clock—but Misaki decided she’d just try her luck, and muddle through best as she could.

It wasn’t as if she couldn’t try again from a fresh slate, anyway.

Morning came, Misaki rushed through her usual routine, going so far as to ignore the homework she had intended to finish before all this infinite looping. Her family was surprised to see her heading off to school so ridiculously early, Misaki just gave them half-hearted excuses as she bolted out the door; she’d make up a believable lie tomorrow, if this worked.

So it was that Misaki stood at the main gate of Hanasakigawa, keeping an eye out for Kokoro, surprising the teacher who was in charge of closing it that day. “Are you waiting for someone, Okusawa-san?” he asked.

“Yes, Tsurumaki Kokoro, _sensei.”_

The teacher smirked. “Good luck with that! There’s no telling what will happen with that girl, I swear.”

Misaki took that to mean that Kokoro could arrive at school at any time of the day; when your family was apparently _that_ absurdly rich, it wasn’t out of the question for them to just bribe the administration and the staff to bend the rules in Kokoro’s favour, if they didn’t let infractions slide altogether for fear of their ire.

When Misaki finally caught sight of her, however, she found out it meant something totally different: “Is she… _cartwheeling…?”_

Kokoro was, wheeling along the sidewalk with a gigantic smile, her long, luxurious hair miraculously not catching on anything as it was subjected to the forces of physics. She stopped from time to time, to avoid hitting other people and obstacles, but was otherwise moving in an almost unbroken series of cartwheels, a feat that would have impressed Olympic judges for the sheer amount of coordination and endurance required to do so, not to mention the stomach to keep from violently throwing up during or afterward.

And as Misaki only realized too little, too late, Tsurumaki was now cartwheeling some distance away from her, having passed by her a while back.

Misaki blinked, before she bolted after her, throwing her hand out, and yelling, “Tsurumaki-san!”

Tsurumaki elegantly came out of her latest cartwheel and back onto her feet, spinning around to face Misaki with the brightest, sunniest smile she had ever seen, like there was an entire arch of high-powered spotlights behind her.

Misaki awkwardly stumbled to a stop before her, both blinded by her radiance, and beginning to realize that _maybe_ that wasn’t the best course of action, if all the curious stares and strange looks she was getting were anything to go by. She frowned, trying to think of something to say that wouldn’t be painfully awkward, that might make her consider abandoning the plan, and trying again the next loop…

“Kokoro!”

Misaki blinked, putting her hand down. “I’m sorry: what?”

“Kokoro!” Kokoro repeated. “You can just call me Kokoro! No ‘-san,’ no ‘-kun,’ but maybe ‘-chan’ and definitely an ‘-n!’ I mean, you _could_ call me ‘Tsurumaki-san,’ but I just like ‘Kokoro’ more!”

“O… kay.” Misaki muttered.

“What’s your name?” Kokoro asked.

Misaki blinked. “Ah: Okusawa Misaki, Tsuru—Kokoro.”

“Well, nice to meet you, Misaki!” Kokoro said, thrusting her hand out.

Misaki stared at her, looked at her hand, before she took it and shook; Kokoro’s grip was firm and confident, her hand warm and soft, and her sparkling, golden eyes locked firmly on Misaki’s.

Kokoro let go, and asked, “So, you called me…?”

Misaki blinked. “Uh, yeah...” she muttered, feeling Kokoro staring intently at her, alongside someone else watching her very, _very_ , **very** closely. “Can we talk later?” she blurted. “I mean, uh, after school—there’s something important I want to talk about with you.”

Kokoro nodded. “Sure! Where do you want to meet up?”

“I was thinking I could just meet you outside your classroom.” Misaki said, rubbing the back of her head. “I’m in 2-A, and you’re in…?”

“2-B!” Kokoro said. “Can I ask what it is you want to talk about?”

Misaki thought about it for a moment, before she said, “No.”

Kokoro’s eyebrows rose, looking suspicious for a moment, before she smiled again. “So it’s a surprise…?” she whispered.

“… Yes?” Misaki replied.

“Alright! I _love_ surprises!” Kokoro cried, beaming. “See you after class, Misaki!”

And then, she was cartwheeling off again.

Misaki watched her go, felt the keen, ominous gaze quickly lift off of her; she stayed where she was, students passing her by, until the bell rang and she headed off to class.

Misaki didn’t pay any attention to any of the lectures or activities that day, both because she had already completely memorized them from all the previous loops, and she was _far_ more concerned with what kind of “surprise” she would eventually reveal to Kokoro. She filled up part of a notebook with what little she had learned about her, before the rest of its pages were filled to the brim with all manner of ideas and plans, some relying on (relatively) reasonable reasons for wanting to talk to Kokoro, others telling her outright that she was the cause of this time loop and Misaki and Sayo’s suffering, more still thinking up of a different, completely outlandish situation that Kokoro would _hopefully_ buy.

Lunch came, Misaki had all but given up; there was, however, a ray of hope when she spotted Sayo at the cafeteria, patiently waiting for her cup noodles to cook with her chopsticks weighing the lid down.

“Hikawa-san!” Misaki cried, running through the crowds and around the tables, spooking and confusing the students. She came to an awkward stop before her table, dropping her bag on it before she bowed, and said, “Please: you’ve got to help me!”

Sayo looked up at Misaki, down at her noodles, before she sighed, stood up, and said, “Come with me, Okusawa-san—this is no place to have this discussion.”

“Thank you,” Misaki said, grabbing her bag as Sayo took her noodle cup, and they made their way out of the cafeteria to a quiet, deserted corridor.

“Is this about Tsurumaki-san?” Sayo asked, sitting down on a step and putting her noodles on her lap.

“Yes,” Misaki said, dropping down beside her and laying her bag by her feet. “I’ve been trying to figure out how best to talk to her, and I’ve just been going absolutely nowhere,” she said, pulling out her notebook, and showing them to Sayo.

Sayo flipped through the pages with a critical look, before she sighed, and handed it back. “It truly is a shame there is no way for us to retain our notes between loops, we could have really used all my notes on Tsurumaki-san.”

“Can’t you just try to remember them?” Misaki asked.

“I would love to, but I can’t.” Sayo grumbled. “It’s been so many loops since I gave up on entertaining her myself, and trying to find someone that was also conscious of this infinite loop all demanded all of my already limited memory.

“Is there really _nothing_ you can tell me about her?” Misaki asked.

Sayo sighed. “Just a theory, without the underlying evidence or proper documentation.”

“I’ll take it anyway.” Misaki said.

Sayo nodded. “Tsurumaki-san seems to be a living ball of hedonistic impulses and desires, with unlimited energy, resources, and influence to act on them whenever and wherever they strike her. I should add that she doesn’t seem to be a completely selfish and uncaring individual only concerned with her own pleasure; we wouldn’t be having this conversation if she were that simple and predictable. Instead, her desires appear to be completely random, with an extremely wide pool of potential manifestations as they are very few things she _won’t_ do; or alternatively, they are influenced by her current mood, the time of day, whatever she had done last, and however many other factors I can’t study, or remember.

“I only managed to discover her partial freedom from the loop’s memory erasing effects by accident, when I noticed she seemed to do different things each loop, regardless of my intervention. My efforts to entertain her failed for the same reasons, as no two solutions of mine consistently worked across different loops, or had any sort of discernible pattern.”

“So basically, we’re just going to have to throw something at the wall, and hope it sticks.” Misaki said flatly.

“Yes, unfortunately.” Sayo said, picking up her cup noodles. She opened the lid, frowned as she saw they were overcooked; with a sigh, she began to eat them.

Misaki sat in silence, before an idea struck her. “Maybe you can _still_ help me, though...”

“What did you have in mind?” Sayo asked, putting her soggy noodles back down.

“Hikawa-san, please come with me when I talk to Tsurumaki-san later.” Misaki replied.

Sayo blinked. “Excuse me…?”

“It’ll lend credence to what I’m going to say, if you’re there to support me!” Misaki said. “Besides, you’re a member of the SDO, and from what I hear, its officers don’t get more serious and no-nonsense than you; whatever we say, however outrageous, Tsurumaki-san will probably have good reason to believe it.”

Sayo thought it over, before she slowly nodded. “Yes… I haven’t thought about that before. Maybe _that’s_ why I couldn’t entertain her myself, and needed to find you.”

“So you’ll help me?”

“Absolutely.” Sayo said, a look of determination on her face. “I desperately want to get out of this time loop also, and more so, I don’t want this to be problem that was the end of me.”

Misaki smiled. “Thank you. We’re meeting after class at her room—2-B.”

“I’ll meet you there, Okusawa-san.” Sayo said.

Misaki nodded, before she got up and headed back to the cafeteria—she was filled with renewed hope, but it wasn’t doing anything for her stomach.

The rest of the afternoon, Misaki refined and iterated on her plans, using the ever dwindling time to give her one shot the best possible chance of landing. Last bell rang, she marched down the hall to 2-B with a look of determination, found Sayo already waiting outside.

“You’re here early.” Misaki said.

“I decided it would be for the best if I was.” Sayo replied. “I hope you have a plan?”

“I do.” Misaki said as she reached for her notebook.

As if on cue, Kokoro took that opportunity to cartwheel right out the door, and between the two of them. She gasped as she saw saw them mid-stunt, gracefully got back on her feet, and faced the two of them and cried, “Misaki! And Misaki’s friend…?”

“Hikawa Sayo, Tsurumaki-san” Sayo said, nodding and offering her hand.

“Nice to meet you, Sayo! And call me just ‘Kokoro,’ please!” Kokoro replied, shaking so enthusiastically and vigorously Sayo cringed and pulled her hand back early. Kokoro didn’t seem to notice or ignored it as she turned back to Misaki, and asked, “Are you going to tell me what that surprise is now?”

“Yes! But first, can we sit down in your classroom, if it’ll be empty with no one around to listen?” Misaki asked, looking around shiftily. “We can’t have the secret spreading to the wrong people…”

Kokoro’s eyes widened in wonder, before she vigorously nodded her head. “Yep, yep! The club that uses this classroom only ever uses it to meet up later in the afternoon! It’ll just be the three of us in there, pretty much”

“Great!” Misaki said. “Can you get some seats ready for us?”

“Absolutely!” Kokoro said, a look of determination on her face as she saluted, and hurried back inside.

Sayo discretely pulled Misaki aside, and whispered, “Just _what_ are you planning?”

“No time to explain, sorry,” Misaki replied. “Just follow my lead, and whatever you do: don’t contradict what I have to say, no matter how ridiculous it is. I _need_ your credibility, remember?”

A look of doubt and wariness came over Sayo’s face; before she could comment, Kokoro called them in. With a heavy sigh, she followed Misaki into the room, sat down on one of the three chairs Kokoro had arranged into a triangle.

Kokoro watched the last of her classmates leave the room and shut the door behind them, before she turned to Misaki, leaning as far towards her as she could. “So what is it that you want to tell me?” she whispered. “I’ve been wondering what it could be all day, I’m so excited!”

“And I will tell you.” Misaki replied, leaning back as far as the backrest would let her. “As soon as you lean back some.”

Kokoro obeyed, and stared at Misaki intently, her hands clasped in front of her.

Misaki took a deep breath, and said, “Kokoro, the entire world as we know it is in danger, and we need your help saving it.”

Kokoro gasped. “Oh no! What’s happened to it?”

“You and most everyone else in the world don’t know it, but today has actually been repeating on a loop, exactly the same events happening every single time without fail.”

“It has…?” Kokoro asked, confused.

“It has.” Misaki said, nodding grimly. She turned to Sayo, and said, “Hikawa-san?”

“I can confirm that.” Sayo said grimly. “I have spent 217,448 days investigating, and there is not a doubt in my mind that we are trapped in a temporal anomaly—a ‘time loop’ as it’s commonly referred to.”

“Wow! 217,448 days?” Kokoro asked. “That sounds like a _really_ long time!”

“Yes, it was _very_ long, and even more unpleasant…” Sayo muttered, frowning.

Kokoro frowned, reached over to pat Sayo on the arm. “I’m really sorry you had to go through all that,” she said, before she smiled, and asked, “Is there anything I can do to make you smile again?”

“You can help us end this time loop—I _really_ don’t want anything else.” Sayo replied.

“Okay!” Kokoro said, pulling out her phone. “I’m going to call the Suits, they can probably get this fixed in no time!”

“The Suits…?” Misaki and Sayo asked.

“Yeah, they’re the nice ladies who follow me around, and help me with stuff all the time!” Kokoro replied. She got distracted by her wallpaper and her notifications for a moment, before she continued, “They can do pretty much anything and _everything_ I ask of them, so fixing this ‘time loop’ or whatever you called it is _nothing!”_

Sayo’s eyes widened in alarm, Misaki noticed. “Wait!” Misaki cried as she lunged forward and grabbed Kokoro’s arm.

Kokoro stared at her, wide-eyed, her thumb just over the “Call” button for the Suits.

“ _Please_ don’t call them,” Misaki said, quickly letting go as she felt that same ominous gaze from earlier upon her once more.

“But why not…?” Kokoro asked.

“Because, they’re also trapped in this same time loop—they don’t know that today is repeating, and they’re also doing the same things, over and over again, without knowing it.” Misaki replied.

Kokoro lowered her phone, Sayo and Misaki relaxed some. “But aren’t I in the same boat?” Kokoro asked. “I didn’t even know today was looping before you two told me.”

“No, you’re actually quite different, Tsurumaki-san,” Sayo said. “You may not have been conscious of your situation, but you were still free from repeating the same events over and over again, like myself and Okusawa-san.”

“Call me Kokoro!” Kokoro said. “And really? That’s super neat! Why do you think that is?”

“Because like I said, Kokoro, we need your help—and your help alone!—with fixing time, and we’re sure that special quality of yours is _exactly_ what we’ve been missing, why me and Hikawa-san have failed all the other times.” Misaki said.

Kokoro blinked. “So… it’s like I’m the hero of this story…?”

“… Yes…?” Misaki said.

“It’s… not _entirely_ accurate, I’d say, but we can say you are.” Sayo added.

Kokoro gasped, her natural radiance and enthusiasm exploding to almost blinding, overwhelming levels. “I’ll do it!” she cried, shooting up from her chair. “I’d _love_ to do it! Just tell me what I need to do!” she cried as she sat back down on her chair, looking at Misaki and Sayo intently with a huge grin on her face.

“Thank you, Kokoro,” Misaki said, smiling back before her face turned deadly serious. “Now listen very closely: I can only say this once, because any more times, we’re risking losing our chance to fix time forever.”

Kokoro gasped, before her face turned equally grim, and she said, “I’m listening.”

“I need you to promise that you’re going to join me and Hikawa-san in trying to figure out how to save time, at the front gate of the school, and— _this is the most important part_ —we will do this after class, _tomorrow.”_

Silence.

Sayo, who had so far been listening in with a grim, serious expression, whipped her head to Misaki, staring at her in a mixture of confusion, disbelief, and outrage.

Kokoro was just confused. “But… why tomorrow? Didn’t you say that today just keeps looping again and again? Won’t I lose my memories, and then you’d have to ask me again?”

“Yes, Okusawa-san, _please,_ explain the logic of our plan to Tsurumaki-san, she seems awfully confused.” Sayo said, teeth gritted and rage barely held back.

“It’s simple,” Misaki said. “The things that are causing this time loop _obviously_ doesn’t want any of us to try to get out of it, right? They’ve spent all that time trying to foil Hikawa-san, so it’s obvious that if they know about there’s a plan to stop them, then they’re going to stop it.”

“But: they can’t stop our plan if they don’t know what it is, right…?”

Kokoro gasped, giddy as she cried, “So they’ll _have_ to stop the looping and let time move to tomorrow, so we can meet and they can find out what it is we’re planning to do to stop them, so they can try to stop it!”

“Exactly.” Misaki said with a completely straight face.

Sayo was now staring slack-jawed at Misaki, expression halfway between witnessing all hope well and truly killed, and unable to believe that the preceding words had just been put together, delivered, and received in all seriousness. She recovered, her face contorted in disgust, and she cried, “That’s--!”

“Genius!” Kokoro cried, interrupting her. “I promise, Misaki, Sayo, we’ll find a way to end this time loop and get time back to normal—tomorrow!” she finished, winking.

“Tomorrow,” Misaki repeated, smiling. “And don’t forget, Kokoro: _don’t_ share this to anyone else, we’re already risking plenty as is.”

“I promise I won’t!” Kokoro said, saluting. “Is there anything else you need to tell me, Misaki?”

“No, that was all of it.” Misaki said. “Get a good rest tonight, Kokoro, you’re going to need it tomorrow.”

“I will!” Kokoro said as she shot up out of her seat. “Ah, I’m so excited!” she cried, before she started cartwheeling to the door.

“Why are you cartwheeling?!” Sayo cried, almost pulling her hair out.

“Because I’m so excited!” Kokoro said matter-of-factly.

Sayo stared at her, watching her stop cartwheeling to open then shut the door after her, before she slumped back into her seat, defeated. “Okusawa-san…?” she mumbled.

“Yes, Hikawa-san?” Misaki asked.

“If I wake up, and find that this time loop is still unbroken, I am going to find you, and _hurt_ you.” Sayo said flatly.

“Noted.” Misaki said, nodding.

“I have other business I need to attend to now, Okusawa-san,” Sayo said, pulling herself back up to her feet and trudging to the door. “Please don’t loiter in this classroom or elsewhere in the school.”

“I won’t,” Misaki said, before she grabbed her bag, and went home.

She spent what was left of the day in a state of doubt and indecision, debating whether or not to actually do the homework and study the topics that were due tomorrow, or ignore them like she had in innumerable other loops. Eventually, she decided on the former, and sat down at her study table; maybe it was only giving herself false hope that the time loop had been broken, everything wouldn’t be as they were earlier that morning, but on the minuscule chance that her crazy plan worked, she wanted to get back into the habit of student life before the inertia was just too much.

Misaki finished her homework and readings much, much earlier than she usually would, by virtue of having answered those questions, and read those same passages so many times before. She ended up with plenty of time before her usual bed time, decided to spend it laying back in her pajamas, staring up at the ceiling, and letting her mind wander.

Did Kokoro actually fall for her ridiculous plan? Would it actually break these loops, or did she just prove that Kokoro was far too trusting for her own good, note that for future attempts? Was Sayo _really_ telling the truth about the loops? Was her suspicion even right? And was she _really_ trying to help Misaki, or was she some sort of demon, helping her suffer in this eternal hell by giving her false hope?

Eventually, the mental exhaustion from that loop’s events overwhelmed her, and she fell into a dreamless sleep.

Misaki woke up feeling strangely, inexplicably exhausted, though she was sure she had gotten far more sleep than she did most days. Wondering about why would have to wait, though: she had left her schoolwork, notes, and books out on her desk last night, and there was only so much time before she would be late for school.

Her family greeted her as she came down for breakfast, some of them asking her why it seemed like she wasn’t in a frantic rush like she was yesterday. Misaki just shrugged, said she forgot why, and the matter was quickly brushed over in favour of more interesting topics. The walk to school was uneventful and unremarkable, as usual, until Misaki arrived at the school gates, and Sayo Hikawa accosted her.

“Okusawa-san, may I please have a moment of your time?” Sayo asked.

Misaki blinked. “Uh… sure? What’s up?”

“Not here,” Sayo said, suspiciously eyeing the students around them, before leading Misaki off to an uncrowded, quiet area of the school’s front.

Misaki felt an uneasiness bubbling up inside of her, but decided to say nothing—this was Sayo Hikawa, after all.

Sayo stopped, and looked around; satisfied, she turned back to Misaki, bowed to her, and said, “Thank you very much, Okusawa-san. I’m so sorry for doubting you, clearly your crazy plan wasn’t as crazy as I thought it was.”

Misaki blinked. “Uh… I’m sorry, Hikawa-san, but what are you talking about…?”

Sayo bent back up, looking alarmed. “Oh no—Okusawa-san, can I please check your bag?”

Too confused, Misaki obliged. Sayo started frantically digging through her bag, pulling out her notebooks and flipping through them, until she found several pages in one of them filled with frantic, panicked scrawl about some sort of plan that _definitely_ wasn’t related to classic Japanese literature.

And it was in that moment that Misaki’s forgotten memories—217,449 days worth, to be exact—came rushing back to her.

Most of it was a blur, long melded together into an indistinguishable mass for how many elements never changed from loop to loop, but it was still far, far, _far_ more than the human brain was ever meant to handle in a single moment. Misaki reeled as it she had been struck by a car, dropping her bag, the contents spilling out on the ground, she herself about to join them.

Sayo caught her before her head hit the hard, unforgiving ground, but she couldn’t stop Misaki from blacking out.

Misaki came to in the infirmary, being watched over not by the school nurse, but a well-dressed women in a smart black suit and sunglasses so dark and opaque she could barely see the reflection of the overhead lights on them. “Wha…?” she muttered.

“Please relax, Okusawa-san,” the woman said. “You are in the infirmary of Hanasakigawa, and you have just recovered from a sudden blackout. So you know, Kokoro-sama and Hikawa-san have both requested to be informed immediately of your regaining consciousness, and that they have also requested to see you personally as soon as possible, if you will allow it.”

Misaki groaned, and closed her eyes again. “Let them in; we’ve got a _lot_ to talk about.”

The Suit nodded. “As you wish, Okusawa-san,” she said, before she excused herself to do just that. Misaki ended up catching a few minutes more of peace and quiet, until a shrill, sharp cry pierced the air:

“ _Misaki…!”_

Misaki’s eyes shot open as Kokoro came barreling through the infirmary’s door, Sayo running after her, and just _barely_ stopping her from tackle-hugging Misaki. “Misaki!” Kokoro cried again, her arms outstretched and just a few inches away from Misaki. “I’m _so_ glad you’re okay! I was so worried when I heard you passed out! Are you alright?”

“Yeah, yeah...” Misaki muttered. “I was _really_ lucky Hikawa-san was there to catch me. Thanks, by the way,” she said, looking past Kokoro and at Sayo.

“You’re welcome, Okusawa-san,” Sayo grunted, still holding Kokoro around the waist.

Kokoro relaxed and stepped back, turning to her Suit, and saying, “Could you please leave the three of us alone for a while? I’d like to talk to my friends in private.”

The Suit nodded. “As you wish, Tsurumaki-sama. Do you have a definite time frame, or will you just inform us when you are done?”

“I’ll just call,” Kokoro said, making the “Call Me” gesture with her hand.

“Acknowledged. I will take my leave now,” the Suit said, before she was gone.

Kokoro looked around the infirmary suspiciously, eyeing the nurse on-duty for a few uncomfortable moments, before she turned back to Misaki, and whispered, “This was all _their_ fault, wasn’t it?”

Before Misaki could ask “Who?”, Sayo nodded grimly and said, “Yes, yes it was their fault indeed, Kokoro.”

“I knew it!” Kokoro said, scowling. “We need to do something about this! Obviously, they’re angry Misaki forced them to stop the time loops, now they’re getting back at her! We need a new plan, to counter their counter-plan against Misaki’s plan—a counter-counter-plan!” she said, thumping her fist into her open palm.

“And we will, Kokoro— **later.”** Sayo said. “Okusawa-san still needs to recover, and we have the rest of school and our other duties to attend to first.”

Kokoro whined, before she nodded and sighed. “Alright… so when and where are we meeting later?”

“I’ll inform you at lunch,” Sayo replied. “Protecting ourselves and foiling any of their future schemes will require much more than just the three of us, I’m afraid, so it will be best if we find a permanent base of operations outside of the school, should we need to recruit outside its population.”

“We could always use my family’s mansion for that!” Kokoro said. “We’ve got, like, a bajillion rooms that we can use and turn into anything we need whenever we need them, plus we’ve got so many cars and drivers we can just have them pick up everyone and drive them there.”

“That will be perfect, Kokoro.” Sayo said, smiling. “If you could please coordinate that with your Suits outside? Myself and Okusawa-san need some privacy to discuss sensitive matters, and we don’t want to put you in unnecessary peril if you overhear them.”

“Done, and done!” Kokoro said, saluting. “See you later, Misaki, Sayo!” she said, waving before she ran out of the infirmary.

Sayo watched her go, and once she was out of eyesight and earshot, she groaned and slumped against the wall. “Aggh… finally…! How can one person have so much energy…?” she whined.

“Do you need a seat, Hikawa-san?” Misaki asked.

“If you would be so kind, I would appreciate that greatly...” Sayo mumbled.

Misaki scooted over, and Sayo sat down on the side of Misaki’s bed. “So what exactly has happened?” Misaki asked.

Sayo inhaled, let it go slowly, and said, “The good news is: you’ve fixed the temporal anomaly. All signs point to the flow of time being back to normal, and in fact, most of your memories of the loops were erased, probably so you wouldn’t need to deal with the psychological trauma it may or may not have caused you.

Sayo bowed her head. “Please, forgive me for accidentally returning them to you, Okusawa-san.”

“You couldn’t have known...” Misaki mumbled. “So is there any other good news, or is it all just bad from here on out?”

“The latter, I’m afraid.” Sayo replied. “First, my suspicions of Tsurumaki-san were right: she was the source, and is _far_ more powerful and influential than I had originally thought. I have detected many more new anomalies, most of them benign for the moment, but the rest are rapidly developing into states that could seriously threaten your reality again, among others.”

“So I solved one problem and gave us infinitely more.” Misaki said flatly.

“I don’t actually see it that way, Okusawa-san!” Sayo replied. “It was more like… you were the canary in the coal mine that informed me of the invisible danger of poisonous gas.”

“You do know coal mine canaries _die_ , right?”

Sayo bowed her head again. “I am very sorry, Okusawa-san, please forgive me again. Anyway, I am very grateful to you, as is the organization I work for. They will be sending you _plenty_ of compensation for all the suffering you had endured, because we” —she paused, and looked away for a moment—“well, really, it was more _I_ was unable to resolve the temporal anomaly in a prompt and efficient manner, and rewards for your invaluable assistance in fixing it.”

“So you’re going to pay me?” Misaki asked. “This _will_ be in Japanese Yen, right? Because I’m assuming you and your organization aren’t exactly Japanese, nor human.”

“Yes, yes, among other non-monetary benefits, and well, yes.” Sayo replied. “For reasons of avoiding legal suspicion, however, our methods it will not be as swift and grand as some of our benefactors wish it to be.”

“Alright, fair enough,” Misaki said, nodding. “It _would_ be a problem if I suddenly had to explain to my family and the government how I came into 50 billion Yen for no apparent reason.”

“Thank you for understanding, Okusawa-san.” Sayo said. “Please note that this does _not_ include the compensation for your further assistance in solving these new anomalies, and any more that may arise in the future.”

Misaki blinked, and stared at Sayo. “… Did I sign a contract while I was out or something?”

“You did not, as you were forcefully drafted into the service.” Sayo explained. “I am afraid that there is no getting out of it, but since the alternative is the risk of complete destruction, or permanent, irreversible, catastrophic change to your reality, we assumed you would help us regardless of the draft.”

Misaki stared at Sayo for a good, long while, before sighed, and let her head fall back onto her pillow. “I didn’t sign up to save the world… the universe, reality, or whatever… from a rich girl. I just wanted yesterday to stop looping, so I could go back to my normal, everyday life.”

“And I am afraid you will have to be the hero Tsurumaki-san thought she was.” Sayo said, nodding sympathetically. “You are the only person that has any hope of containing her, and that’s with the full size and scope of my capabilities and the organizations compared to you.”

Misaki grumbled under her breath. “Tsurumaki-san isn’t human, either, is she?”

“She is not, though she seems completely oblivious of that fact, as she was with the loops.” Sayo replied. “And just so you will be prepared: those future associates I mentioned will not be, either.”

Misaki nodded. “Are we going to have to find them and recruit them, like you did, or are they already signed up?”

“The latter.” Sayo replied. “They may be an… eccentric bunch, with their own quirks and challenges similar to Tsurumaki-san, but I assure you they are very skilled at what they do.”

“Okay.”

“Do you have any further questions, Okusawa-san?” Sayo asked.

“No...” Misaki muttered, closing her eyes. “And Hikawa-san? Please leave, I just… want to be alone right now.”

“As you wish, Okusawa-san.” Sayo said, before she shuffled out of the infirmary.

And so began the rest of Misaki’s weird, eventful life, all revolving around the happiness of Kokoro Tsurumaki.

**Author's Note:**

> Not planning on continuations at the moment, due to other projects. Just wanted to get this concept there.


End file.
